The Story of Egypt’s Multilingual Amir Akhor Stone, 1800-1830s

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Tourist Guidance, Faculty of Tourism & Hotels Management, Minia University, Minia, Egypt

Abstract

The excavation of trilingual stones was instrumental for the modern decipherment of Ancient Egyptian scripts. Although the Rosetta Stone is the most famous example, a large number of stelae, namely stones, with trilingual inscriptions played a role in this scholarly venture. However, they were not available easily as they were subject to the antiquities market and individual desires. The ancient stone whose modern history will be traced in the current study carried many appellations: Caristie Stone, Burton Tablet, and the Threshold (stone) of Amir Akhor Mosque. The contest over ownership of the Amir Akhor stone will be tracked, why and how the Amir Akhor stone entered the collections of the Louvre. Many issues related to the Amir Akhor stone will be tackled such as the procedures for applying and receiving certain antiquities under the reign of Mohamed Ali. Finally, there will be an attempt to follow the development of Egyptian perception of such trilingual stones. In order to achieve this a descriptive-analytical methodology was employed to discover that there are two chapters for the story of Amir Akhor stone. However, the contest for owning trilingual stones differed from the Rosetta (1801) stone to the Amir Akhor stone (1820s) to the Tanis Stone (1866). As the 19th century progressed, however, increased modern Egyptian appreciation of their pharaonic heritage meant that the Tanis Stone, discovered in 1866, was kept in Egypt.

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